If you don’t make the journey,
You'll always wish you had.
The Origins of Minty Tours
Minty Tours was founded in 1983 between myself, Peter Minty, and my brother Ian Minty, in order to bring together a group of 10 friends to go ski-ing. The Tour Operator then gave us one free place, so we took our sister, Jane Minty.
Jane broke her leg on the second day, but Minty Tours kept going.
A series of ski-ing holidays followed, then hiking trips in the French Pyrenees with a university friend. Then some solo trips to the Himalaya (the Annapurna Circuit), across the greater Himalaya in Kashmir into Ladakh, along part of the Inca trail in Equador, round the majestic Torres del Paine in southern Chile, and the Canadian Rockies around Lake Louise.
However, I have always been drawn to the wonderful long distance footpaths in France, the Routes of Grandes Randonnées, or “GR” routes. Marked with little flashes of red and white paint every 25 metres, you can follow a trail through remote mountains with absolute confidence. I have traveled the Normandy coast, the Pyranees, the Alpes Maritime and across Corsica. I even persuaded my wife Carolyn on our honeymoon, to hike across the volcanoes on the Island of Reunion.
Sadly after 23 years of marriage, Carolyn died in 2014 from lung cancer, and I was left with her two dogs, Topsy and Happy. They are mother and daughter and are labrador brood bitches for Guide Dogs for the Blind. We had their puppies in our kitchen. The pups stayed 6 weeks, then went puppy walking for a year, before returning to Guide Dogs for their final training. Happy is now 7 years old and has just been retired, so they are both now my dogs. Previously Guide Dogs would not let me take them out of the country, so the opportunity arose to take them to France, and to walk across it.
This is the tale of that journey.
The Origins of an idea.
Ants in my Pants
On leaving university, my university friends thought it would be nice to have a re-union dinner.
So in 1975, we held a Christmas Dinner re-union, and we have held one nearly every year since. Gradually “Christmas” has moved to the summer so that the kids could be thrown out into the garden, then to post-harvest to suit one of our friends who is a farmer in Norfolk. Finding Christmas crackers in July can be a challenge!
In 2016, Christmas dinner was held in France, in Liausson, a small walled village of 120 souls some 50 kilometres west of Montpellier, to where two of our group had retired. The village is in the department of Hérault in the french region of Languedoc-Roussillon, and sits above Lac du Salagou, dammed at one end, out of which arise ancient volcanic cones, typical of this part of the Massif Central. So in temperatures of over 30C, I walked the 20k round the lake. Despite re-hydrating with beer and copious amounts of water at several cafes, I ended up shivering, which I put down to a mixture of dehydration and sunstroke. That week, having what one lady friend described as “Ants in my Pants”, I covered about 100k through the paths and wild boar tracks in the scrub, or “maquis”, from which the French Resistance in the last war took its name. Wild boar tracks are great, but not very well cleared of vegetation above the height of a pig!
The enjoyment of these walks, coupled with a throw-away remark that 'I should have walked there', as I had been so late in booking a flight that the only flight available was to Montpellier, led to the train of thought that perhaps I would. Two years later, Christmas dinner is again in Liausson, and I have offered to walk there; bring the Christmas pudding, and the dogs!
Guide Dogs
This walk is my self-imposed challenge and not a deliberate fundraiser for Guide Dogs. (For more information on Guide Dogs, see their section under “Dogs”). However, my retired Guide Dog brood bitches, Happy and Topsy, are my best friends, who only want love and to be with me. So if you enjoy these tales, and would like to support Guide Dogs, there is a Just Giving Link. This will be go to my Guide Dog tribute fund for my late wife Carolyn, whose dogs they were. I aim to sponsor another Guide Dog, to be called Carolyn.
